Carlos Oquendo Zabala is having a bronzetastic first Olympic Games experience…  

The 24-year-old Colombian cyclist rode brilliantly on Friday to claim the bronze medal in the men’s BMX cycling event at the London Games.

Oquendo put up a strong challenge, but just couldn’t get ahead of defending Olympic Champion Maris Strombergs of Latvia and Sam Willoughby of Australia.

Oquendo ended the final race with a time of 38.251, just .675 seconds behind Strombergs.

Even though he didn’t win Olympic gold, Oquendo still helped made it a banner day at the 2012 Olympic Games for Colombia by adding to teammate Mariana Pajon‘s gold in the women’s race.